


On Cloud Nine in the Underground

by fluffybunnybadass



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Based on a Dream, Extremely Mild Violence, F/M, Fantasy AU, Married Couple, but i'm tagging it anyways to be on the safe side
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:08:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28864560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffybunnybadass/pseuds/fluffybunnybadass
Summary: Fantasy AU |The group of adventurers that contained Lance and Sarah were following another routine expedition. Kill several monsters on the way down to the boss, kill the boss, and then make their way back. But when they reached what would be their exit point, something... strange stops them from making their way through. It was unlike any monster that they had seen before.
Relationships: self/Lance
Kudos: 1





	On Cloud Nine in the Underground

**Author's Note:**

> this was based off a very vivid, full-length adventure dream that I had one morning. And, naturally, it was so good that I just had to write it down! The mechanics of the fantasy world were unclear, so that's why several aspects of it might feel vague or not as detailed as I usually write, or even anachronistic.  
> As for the title... the word soup title just sounded cool a year ago okay

Things had gotten hard for us. Everything up until this point had been... adequately challenging, but nothing we couldn't overcome. Weird, unusual, but with teamwork and patience, we were all able to make it to the current point. Maybe we had all been a bit cocky, too sure of ourselves and our abilities; for now we had hit a wall that our hubris could not break through.

“Alright! Split up and attack each side! Try to take the two on either end down first!” His command had rung out clearly in the large, disastrous cavern.

Everything in this underworld hellscape before had been clearly defined and easy to understand at a glance, but here... Now... It was indeterminable. I'm not sure if it had just been me or the others as well; I suppose the others had noted the oddness of what we thought would be the last challenge, for I'm sure I heard one of them mutter “My God,” when the two entities had surged up from underground, their bulky forms feeling like the equivalent of static on a television. Against the reddish walls, tinted so by the flow of lava in the distance, these murky beings stood out in stark contrast. Towering high into the cavern, slowly writhing around, they attacked any who came near it. Had it not been for the quick reflexes of our members, we would have had our first casualties of the night. Of the entire mission.

I watched, as one half of our team took to the left, charging at the unknown entity. It raised itself high, like a horse rearing on its hind legs, and out shot smaller tendrils and black shards of unidentifiable origin. I winced instinctively, quickly praying for the others' safety as they broke apart from their charge, trying to run around and get at it from the backside. We had been doing so well tonight. What had gone wrong? What sort of being existed beyond what we had initially came here to defeat, that made our former enemy look like child's play?

Weapons alighted upon the surface of the entity, and grazed off it, hardly seeming to do any impact on it. The night before had been exciting, full of adrenaline, but for once, I felt fear at the possibility that this threat and its weakness may be left unknown to us; and our fate? Even more uncertain as our team advanced.

Even those providing aerial support had trouble getting close. When they flew in close, sharp objects jutted out in a spray, like a thousand throwing knives, and they had to fly away to avoid taking any hits. Though bulky, these things had far more speed than they needed or should have had...

I tore my eyes away from the tendril on the left, and looked to the right to see how that team had been handling it. They were not faring much better than our side. I looked back, scanning the cloud of dirt that kicked up from the latest throw. Finally, I found who I was looking for.

“Lance!” I called out, cupping my hands around my mouth. He glanced back at me, before looking cautiously again at the thing we had thrown ourselves at. He hastily leapt back towards me, taking care to not draw the creature's attention.

When he was beside me, I let out a sigh of relief. Things were still chaotic, beyond anything we had planned for or expected, but at least he hadn't been harmed. His eyes scanned the two battlefields.

“The other side isn't making much progress.”

He gritted his teeth. “Everyone! Fall back!” he shouted. Our forces fell back to regroup some fifty yards away from where the last tendril fell, nearly nailing a teammate in the back. We watched as everyone came back in, checking in on them and ensuring everyone's safety and telling them to take a minute. Two of our forces who had been kept back were sent off to watch the monsters, if such a moniker could be bequeathed to what felt like soulless attachments to an unknown, larger being.

I watched Lance for a moment. I watched the gears of his mind hard at work, as he contemplated several other strategies, dismissing some as soon as they came. As he thought in silence, my eyes wandered back to what could be called the battlefield. There was a small hollow strip of land between where the two towering forms had broken through, leaving a small bridge. I followed the shape of it, the narrow field, up through to some space behind the tendril's line of defense. Where our initial exit had been left unbarred, unguarded (or so we had thought at the time; how foolish of us to assume it would remain that way in our overconfidence), there now had appeared some... almost ghostly apparition. It had a long, almost alien body; yet somehow vaguely felt reminiscent of something I had seen before. I couldn't quite place it, but I watched, transfixed, as it simply floated there, translucent as a jellyfish.

“...Hm?” Lance followed my gaze towards where the third being appeared, seemingly unrelated to the thrashing that the other two provided. Yet its appearance left a haunting feeling in me; as though, if we were not careful, it could deliver a fate worse than the beating and subsequent death that the relatively mindless things would crush us with.

I shuddered to think what horrors it was capable of.

“That's great.”

“Mm. Yeah.” My eyes kept flicking back and forth, trying to formulate a plan of some sort. If we could just sneaked past the things we couldn't beat, it would have been fine; but now there was this strange, sick apparition guarding the area we could not simply stroll past. There had to have been something we could do...

“Was it there the entire time?”

“Mm, maybe? I didn't notice it before.”

He let out a long sigh. “This is going to be even more difficult.”

“Yeah. ...Hey, does it give you a weird vibe to look at?”

Lance turned to look at me, and I broke concentration to meet his eyes. “How so?” he asked,his concern breaking through the unshaken leader persona he naturally fell into.

“Like, I dunno. Like, it could do something far worse to us than either of those things could.” I gestured to the two tendrils, which had slowed down to a gentle sway, almost like they were breathing. “But, like... I also get the sense that maybe it might be the easiest to take out. We hardly did any damage to those things, but I feel like, if we got close enough, and kept the two distracted, we could maybe damage it enough that it couldn't provide support.” I looked back at the center being, frowning. “It's almost like.... like a... video game?”

He softly placed his hand on my shoulder. “If only.”

“Yeah... But--!” I turned around to look at him again, face alight with excitement. “What if it _is_ , in that it's a third part that helps support the whole? Like, it'll help heal the other two if we don't take it out first, or status, or something. I mean, I know that's not likely, but like. What if we can take it out first? Then we don't have to worry about it supporting either of the other two as we whittle them down!!”

He gave me a pained smile.

“I mean, we can still try it. Just one or two people on the side to keep the two busy, and we can all try charging in at the middle.”

“We can try having one person go in first just to see if it can even be affected, first, Sarah. I'm not taking any unnecessary risks if we can't damage it or figure out what it does first.”

“Okay, that's fair.” It's not like this was a game, after all. These were people we knew and loved. He would struggle with himself if his command got them killed; and that would kill me, just to see their deaths on his conscience.

\-------

The most agile of our force went in towards the middle route. There wasn't much to shield them from either tendril, let alone block them from the apparition. Once they had set foot on the bridge, the two tendrils on either side stopped their slow swaying and immediately tightened up, as though preparing to spring. Lance had to hold out his arm to stop the rest of our force, reminding them that we needed to be prepared for whatever could come after.

The apparition turned slowly from the boxes that had appeared around it at some point during our planning, looking directly at the two-person team that approached. The two looked carefully at each other, then nodded, the closer of them beginning a slow approach. We had sent a second person in case someone needed to help create an escape, while we watched from afar to make sure that any attacks sent its way had an effect.

There was silence in the air. What movement we could see as our teammate approached were only his footsteps; the soft, wispy creature beckoning the two tendrils towards itself, as they eagerly awaited a reason to attack (?!); and the floating of the jellyfish-like being that he was approaching. We waited for what felt like hours, as our teammate slowly stepped across. No doubt he was cautiously eyeing the two tendrils as he inched across the dirt bridge, pushing down his fear as he continued his approach in silence.

Some sort of high pitched trill echoed across the hellish valley as our teammate reached the halfway point of the bridge, causing him to pause. He looked left and right, all around, then back at the gently floating being. It didn't sound outright aggressive, but we all understood what it meant. He was spotted; he was being watched. If he made one wrong move....

A cold shudder overtook me.

We watched as he slowed his pace. His partner motioned that they still had his back. They had knelt, ready to spring in and create a diversion for them both to run from. The only issue was _what_ that creature could be capable of; and that was part of the point of this.

Maybe it was a bad idea, after all....

He had now reached maybe a few yards away from the creature. From far away, we couldn't quite tell how tall it was; but now that he was closer, it was apparent that it was much shorter than any of us felt it could be. The floating body made it seem taller, for certain, but it was maybe half of our teammate's height. As he approached, he lifted up his hand in a gesture, almost as though greeting it. The creature seemed look on curiously, until our teammate's hand had hit an invisible netting. There was a small, almost holographic spiral in the air, like light traveling along veins. A shrill, trilling screech filled the air, and we clamped our hands over our ears. I watched as our friend panicked, his hand seemingly stuck in the air, as the being seemed to glow red, its size inflating like an air balloon. His companion leapt into action, cutting away at the invisible strings that kept their teammate's hand tied in the air. It screeched again, but they pulled back to the safety from beyond the start of the bridge, hiding behind some rocks until the screeching subsided. The apparition returned to normal. Its pale hue white once more, the size shrunk back to normal.

“I've seen enough,” Lance said, getting ready to issue the command for the two to return. “That's not worth the risk right now.”

“Wait! It may have been accidental, but they _did_ damage it. Moreso than we've laid on either of those two things combined.”

He let out a frustrated noise, lowering his hand. “Then, what do you propose? Even if it was accidental, the surge of energy that thing made...”

I winced, nodding. “It... just might be worth a shot to invest a rush on it? Look, it's even gone back to normal... Well. I suppose that's a weird thing to say.” My eyes watched as the creature went back to looking at the boxes that it must have brought with it during our initial charge against the tendrils. “That's right!” I gasped, looking at either side once more before turning back to Lance.

“Did you see either of those move when they had gotten close?” I said, pointing at the two stalks. He looked at me cautiously, then looked once more at the battlefield, where our two teammates were looking over the one's hand.

“I suppose not... But you can't expect me to believe that they would seriously stand still if we attacked the middle by itself.”

“Well, I suppose not, but... I don't think they moved until they sensed intent?”

He raised an eyebrow at me, prompting me to continue.

“I don't know how to explain it, but it felt like, when he was crossing the bridge, that they waited for a reason to attack. They _knew_ that he was there, but they had no reason to launch themselves at him. At least, I don't think while that thing in the middle is there.” I sighed. “Look, I know it's obvious that these things are sentient enough to sense us and block our attempts to get out, but... maybe? It might be worth a shot, trying to rush the middle.”

I could tell by his expression that he didn't like the plan. But we had tried to attack the other things first, tried all sorts of different ways to get a hit in, and I don't think I saw a single wince from the two stalks, or anything that caused any sort of lasting damage. If anything, it felt like we were trying to make nicks on a brick with a butterknife. Nothing would cut it as sharply as we needed.

“Fine. We'll see if we can get rid of it.”

“Just. One more thing--”

“Yes?”

My eyes scanned for the area where our teammate had gotten his hand stuck. “Try having them hit other spots like that. It might be the only way to damage it, for whatever reason. We could try walking up to it but if we can keep our distance, it might help keep us from getting trapped in the event that it pulls the attention of the other two. For all we know, those tendrils could be an extension of it....”

“I can certainly try, but I'd rather we try to find as many weak spots as possible.”

“I know. It just might be the only one we can find.”

He nodded, and turned to look at the team. Some had started to set up a small, makeshift camp, after our previous attempts to get by had resulted in many stalemates. It wasn't much, but it gave those that had expended a lot of energy someplace to rest. A way to keep ourselves from going stir-crazy at this roadblock. We had already spent more time here, trying to get by, than half the time it took to get to this point. Our adventure had been plenty straightforward, for the most part, and we had easily cycled each other out so we were all well-rested. But now, parts of our team were starting to feel the toll that this fight was taking; that the entire adventure had caused. Most people hadn't gotten more than scratches and cuts on the way up here. Now, several had felt their muscles ache from ramming themselves and their weapons into an enemy who seemed to be held together more tightly than the cliff walls that blocked off our exit. If it weren't for the lava that flowed like a moat around the wall, we could have tried to push our way through another spot, away from these... things, but as it stood, we weren't able to do that.

I gestured to the two by the stone bridge to hold their positions. Lance spoke with members of the camp, finding who felt up to the task of running with us. We headed down towards our two earlier teammates, more than a handful of us prepared to try and get a shot in. Lance explained the current strategy to everyone, pointing at what positions he wanted us to go in. I listened to him, glancing every so often at the enemies: the stalks that were so black, yet swirled with something hideous as their hide; the ghastly being that minded its own business; it did nothing until it looked up, sensing a gaze at it, and looked me directly in the eyes. I pulled myself away from its locking gaze, focusing back on the words Lance spoke, as he addressed us.

I shook off the haunting feeling, and got into position. There was no spoken command; we launched off at the being, charging at specific beats that we knew from our experiences together. The people ahead of me found themselves being repelled back, like their weapons were glancing off an unseen barrier. Those that could provide aerial support launched themselves into the air with that force, but it drew the attraction of those tendrils on either side of us as they hanged in the air, furiously looking for an opening as the rest of us charged.

I halted, seeing the futility of it. The being on the other side of the force field merely stared at us, curious, confused, wondering what it was we were doing. Could it not sense intent, after all? Or was there simply too much going on for it to understand that we were causing it harm. Frustrated, I looked around, as our team continued to work towards breaking the barrier by force, if an opening could not be found. I saw Lance holding back, the same frustration on his face as he saw that this was becoming a wasted effort.

Perhaps it wasn't the best decision of mine, but I continued to look about me. _It had to have been around here...._ There was a gilting light in the air, surrounding what otherwise seemed like a hole in the air, is the best way I could describe it. I swung my weapon around, jabbing at the hole in the invisible netting. It was like sticking a fork in a socket. Lightning jolted up alongside my arm, turning it numb and making it feel heavy. I cried out sharply, at the same time as the being screeched.

“Sarah!”

My teammates paused, dust clearing a bit as they looked about to determine what had happened. Lance rushed over, shoving me away from the connection that my weapon had made. The continued shrieking of the monster had dragged their attention back to it, and they prepared themselves for the backlash. The tendrils engaged, sending out thick rope-like vines to slap down our fliers. They ducked, dancing in the air with the smaller extensions, until their weapons had been yanked from them and they were tossed aside.

Our formation fell out of place. Someone called out for us to retreat, focus on getting out. It didn't sound like his voice, but the numbing pain made it difficult to focus. One of the scouts had relayed to me what had happened afterwards. But at the time, all I remembered was being pushed back, until we came back to camp, and the pain finally subsided.

“What were you trying to do?!” Lance said later on. His pain at my harm was not masked at all. The others in the camp had given us space. Even if he hadn't asked of it, they knew us well enough.

“We _weren't_ getting anywhere trying to break through the shield!”

“You didn't have permission to break formation like that!”

“Oh, come off it. You were about to call us to fall back as it was anyways! At least I wanted to make sure that the charge wasn't for nothing.”

“It's not for nothing if we can determine that something doesn't work, especially if none of you get hurt.” He made a point of nodding at my arm, which was still pins and needles, but had at least soothed somewhat with the cooling salve that had been placed on it.

I cycled through a handful of emotions, trying to be angry at him, knowing that he meant _me_ especially, but at the same time, just... very glad and relieved that he cared. It's not like it was ever under debate, but the action itself was just... very much a relief and a comfort. I'm sure my facial expressions must have been amusing to him as I struggled to produce a mad face, followed by a pouty one, and then just... a relieved sigh.

He let out one of his own and knelt down beside me. “Don't do something like that again.”

“I make no promises.”

“Sarah, I'm serious.”

“I know you are; but do you really expect me to not think for myself? Your unruly wife?” I poked his nose. “A person so audacious, so boisterous, that you can't help but smile at her attempts?”

“I'm not smiling at this last one.”

“Oh, I know. But let's pretend that you are, hmm? I mean, now you know for sure of a few things. One, it hurts like hell trying to damage that thing with those weird nets. But I'm sure there's a way around that. Two, it won't attack us directly if there's a lot of us at once, and instead will use the stuff on the right and left. Three, even when you're scolding me, it's still nice to see how much you love me.”

He shook his head at me, but I could see the corner of his lips try to fight the smile that was growing on them.

“So,” I asked, slowly getting myself to my feet. He held out his arm for me to pull me up. “What's next?” I dusted my clothes off, looking at him expectantly.

“Next... we go back to the drawing board. I'll ask around and see if the team's managed to come up with any ideas.” He began to head towards the rest of the camp, where others had been checking their armor and weapons.

I felt the lightbulb go off over my head. “Oh!”

“I'm not sure I like the sound of that.”

“You didn't even hear what I had to say!”

He sighed. “Fine. What is it?”

I sped up to walk up a little ahead of him, smiling. “How about a split attack on all three?”

“No.”

“Like, maybe a 3-2-3, or a 2-4-2. We'll need people to distract the tendrils on the side while we try again on the center, but maybe more on the inside might be better than less? We only need to distract it long enough to keep an assault up down the middle. What do you think?”

“I said no.”

“But we haven't even tried it!”

“Sarah!” He stopped to look me in the eyes. There was pain in his, and I stopped my grinning to listen. “I'm not risking anyone's lives like that. If we couldn't hit it with larger numbers, what makes you think we'd be more successful if we split ourselves further? I'm not taking the chance. No more unnecessary risks, do you understand?”

I nodded solemnly.

\------

We had made further attempts. Overall, most of what happened during the ensuing chargers were a bunch of chaotic attempts of rushing at the enemies, trying to find new weak points that we hadn't seen before. We had spent hours on this, to the point that many had thought about taking rest. But we didn't know what else lurked in the caverns, and we weren't too keen on keeping a camp for something that should have otherwise just been a day's mission. We were supposed to be returning back home by now, at the latest.

I sighed. I still went in some of the rushes, but Lance made sure to stay beside me or keep me in his line of sight, in case I tried something again. It had gotten to the point that I decided to stay behind and watch again; it was one thing if either of us got hurt from poor form. It was another if he got hurt because he was trying to make sure I stayed safe. It wasn't even that he was consciously making that decision-- he knew I was good enough that he didn't need to worry. But if I was going to be a factor he was gonna have to worry about, then I may as well pull myself from the fight at this point. At least, for the time being.

I watched as the group tried a staggered attack, one rush on top of the other, in an attempt to at least subdue one of the tendrils. It at least had that much effect, at the ground level. But the upper half of the … plant? It acted as though nothing was phasing it, so it continued to whip about our aerials, like nothing was happening below it. I'd point out different points of the stalk that seemed to lock up in response to the attacks, but we simply didn't have the manpower to hit every single point of it. We could paralyze the upper half from whipping around, but then the lower half would undulate, before shooting out more whip-like vines at such a force that even our armor was starting to reach its limit. Some people would try to rush the center again, in twos or threes, but those were sparingly done, and often snuck in during the confusion of battle.

I sighed. At least I wasn't the only one getting frustrated.

“How's this strategy working?” Lance came up beside me, watching the team from afar. We didn't have many people left in the tiny group for the time being. Two scouts on either side, to watch and report anything that may have come up; the few other teammates who had declined the last few rushes had gone out to clear their heads, taking careful walks into areas we hadn't passed thru before. It wasn't ideal, but they made sure to go out in pairs, and report back if they had found anything we could make use of. Anything to get us out of the hellhole we were stuck in.

“Not much better than before. If we could afford to launch all at once, we might be able to stop it in its place long enough to make _some_ kind of dent in it, but at this rate....” I shook my head. “We're just the definition of insanity.”

He sighed. “Call them back.”

I motioned to the scouts, and they ran over to issue the fallback. I leaned over a rock, watching with my chin propped up. I glanced back at Lance, who looked fatigued.

“You okay? You look worn out.”

“Everyone's exhausted. We might have to spend the night.”

“Mm, yeah. But I meant you, specifically.”

He didn't answer. He looked off in the distance, hand on his chin, deep in thought. I could tell he was trying to think of every battle strategy he could muster. Going over each one, trying to figure out what went wrong, what didn't work, what was working; turning over each plan like one did a stone they were observing. I almost felt bad for the trouble I had caused earlier, but it felt like a necessary risk to get the information that we needed. The distraction that formed afterwards was not my fault.

I let out a sigh, and looked back out towards the field. Our people were heading on their way back, and I could make out the tiny, ant-like movements of those out on a walk.

“Hey, they're coming back now.”

He hadn't said anything still. He had taken a seat by the fire that had kept me company, lost in thought. It hurt a little, seeing him this distraught, but I also didn't wanna distract him further from his contemplation.

“I'm... I'm gonna go greet everyone, okay? So you can stay here and think.” I began to walk past him. I gave him a smile, and a pat on the shoulder, trying to think of how I could help him in the meantime.

I felt resistance on my arm as I began to pull away, and looked back at him. His hand was holding mine, not letting go. I looked at him curiously.

“Lance?”

“Let someone else greet them.” He pulled on my arm gently, trying not to aggravate its injury, but enough to catch me off balance. I stumbled towards him, and he wrapped his arms around me, holding me close. “I need you here with me.”

My face flushed at the sudden proclamation, and I tried to sputter out a response. But my mind went blank, unable to formulate a single thought, and I gave up and settled in to his embrace, burying my face in his chest.

I'm not sure how long we had stayed like that. After some time, I had shifted to where I was sitting in front of him, facing the fire. His arms wrapped around my stomach, head resting on mine. I poked the fire a few times, and we acknowledged the few members of our team that had come up to check in with us. It wasn't often that he had gotten so affectionate like this. The tenderness was inopportune, in my opinion, but it wasn't like we could operate like emotionless machines. I didn't mind it, in all honesty. I just hadn't expected him to go from being an exhausted commander to my husband in the span of a few minutes, let alone in front of the others.

But, now that the teams had all come back, and were deciding amongst themselves who would take which shifts for night watch, it felt less like a strict, highly trained regiment, and more like a group of friends and family. Laughs were exchanged around the other campfires, jokes about failed attempts from the day, cheers for earlier conquests heard about. Someone saw how tightly entwined we were, and offered to bring us some food from our rations for the trip.

“Yes, please,” I said, smiling at our teammate. She smiled back at me, and came back with a blanket when she returned with our food.

“Since he seems intent on keeping you here,” she said, with a wink at both of us. I felt my face heat up, and hastily took the blanket to bury myself in. “Oh, I meant that one for him. You're the one being held, after all~” she told me, teasing.

“Yeah yeah, just bring us another blanket please.” My face felt hotter than the fire that was in front of us. “And something for the fire.”

“Of course.”

It was nice, that despite the stress of the day, our friends could laugh and have such mirthful cheer despite the unexpected setback this challenge had presented us. I settled in to my husband's embrace, feeling content. I sent a message home updating them on our status; how we were currently stalled, and looked forward towards cracking through tomorrow. Tomorrow was a new day. We could tackle this problem head-on tomorrow, with renewed vigor and a fresh mindset. It'll all be okay...

\-----

We had been at it since the morning arose without much incident. Well, as much of a morning as it could be. We were technically underground, so the most sense of morning we had was a vague sense of the lighting being somehow brighter and clearer than the 'night'. Or perhaps there was a skylight somewhere, and we had just not seen it. Someone had thought they seen something in the camp once the fires had gone out at the time of stirring; but it was merely another teammate tripping over their own stuff.

Several of our teammates tried their own strategies while Lance and I watched. We couldn't tell if the enemies in front of us looked anymore exhausted or rested than us. I thoughtfully suggested that maybe they were, or perhaps they weren't morning people, as I could have sworn the twin stalks seemed slower. Lance suggested that it was our own people being rested from the events of the day prior that seemed to add to the speed.

All the same, we had made no progress in inflicting damage on the tendrils. We hadn't initially planned for such a long stay, so while some of us tried different strategies, others had gone out to search for potential food sources. It was still difficult, with the brightest of light coming from the nearby lava moat, but we needed to do something.

“After this, let's regroup for lunch,” Lance said. He seemed to be in better spirits today, and it made me happy.

“Yessir!”

He quirked an eyebrow at me, and I laughed.

“Everyone ready?” He turned to look at the final lineup for this next rush.

“Yes, sir!”

It went... about as well as could be expected. We threw what we could at it, trying all sort of different methods, including finding a way to collect and reflect back at the tendrils their own shards, cutting off their vines with our weapons and attacking more cohesively than we had yesterday. We were all in this together, and yet... nothing. Our efforts were about as pointless as if we hadn't moved. Instead, we all found ourselves panting, out of breath. The tendril reared back, then released itself, aiming to wipe all of us out at once. I braced for impact, Lance nearby trying to shield me as well. Several of us went flying. Once he had landed, Lance let out the call to fall back, us both ensuring everyone had gotten out safely before we turned back ourselves.

“That was.... not ideal,” I said between breaths.

“Do you think it's learning from our movements?” asked another member of the group, leaning against another as he tried to catch his breath.

“Don't know.”

“We should all return to camp for now,” Lance announced, looking at everyone. They had done their best to seem eager to go more, but at his call to return, their postures relaxed, several collective sighs of relief heard around the group. “We can discuss some other plans after we've eaten and rested.”

We met the scouting group from this morning back at camp. It wasn't much, but they had managed to find smaller creatures and some berries of questionable origin. Neither seemed like a good idea, given that our information on this area had been sorely lacking. Lance hadn't been too happy about that, but given that we weren't expected to stay for long, he had begrudgingly accepted the lack of thorough research material.

“What about the ruins from the last fight?” I offered up. Others looked at me, like I had said something unusual. “...Did no one think about the places we had fought through before? We battled against _living_ things. Living things eat! ”

“What about you? Did you think of it sooner?” someone piped back, and I felt my cheeks heat up.

“Okay that's not fair, I'm not expected to be looking for food as well!”

“Well, neither were we!”

There was a laugh throughout the group, and I looked down, embarrassed. It was pretty funny, that none of us had considered tracing our steps back, but at the same time, it was such a long and twisty way back. Several places had caved in or become otherwise unavailable once we had finished our fights in those areas. It's not _that_ surprising that none of us had thought of it.

Even Lance had laughed at the group joke. I softened. Given how stressed he had been, it was _really_ nice that he could approach today with a much better mood. We all liked it better when Lance was able to approach the day with positive determination. It's probably why he became the group's leader, even when on paper it originally had been someone else. He was just so... _Likeable_.

He grabbed my hand, pulling me down to sit next to him. “If it bothers you so much, you can go out and look after lunch, sweetheart.”

I pouted. “Oh, I'd much rather be where the action is, and _you_ know this. We can send someone else, if anyone feels up to it.”

I'm not sure how I wound up being respected enough by the team for them to tolerate Lance's trust in me as a teammate, and not presume that it was some sort of bias for being his wife. Or maybe they had thought of it so, but somehow our time together, or my observations, or something in his nature, they just trusted in him, and he trusted me. They didn't have to trust me, if they trusted him. But especially when I sometimes just went off like that... I wondered if they regretted it, or if they thought it was useful to have someone not afraid to go against his orders sometimes. But they still welcomed me, they treated me like a trustworthy teammate, and a good friend. So I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised when someone had offered to go ahead and scout that far back, or when someone offered to go with them.

The scouting team from this morning joined us for the afternoon set. I watched as they set off another rush, noticing as one or two strayed from the fight, trying to get a hit in at the middle lane. But that shield glanced their attacks off, their weapons slipping like butter on a hot pan. Lance was wrapped up in this rush, and I had stayed nearby to observe. He hadn't noticed the other two try, only for them to growl in frustration and use the momentum to bounce back into the fight. I sighed, propping my chin up as I watched. Finally, the squad had fallen back to collect themselves. My eyes watched them walk up back a bit, and I could hear Lance address them. I tuned it out, looking at the writhing tendril slowly become still, like some giant tree. My eyes looked back towards the creature in the middle.

Still as translucent as the first day, it floated about. This time there was more movement to it. Curious, I watched, as it slowly flit about, going from one box to the other. Was it... setting something up? It made no sense. But it was hard to see, hidden behind the rocks at the forefront of the bridge. I looked back towards the group; they hadn't put any attention towards me yet. My husband certainly hadn't noticed that I hadn't joined the group yet. I looked back at the alien-esque phantasm. It looked back at me, its eyes feeling like black orbs, despite hardly anything there to show for it.

I felt hooked. Drawn in. It chirruped at me, something weird, something high pitched, but the tone all the same felt inquisitive. Curious. Just as unknown to it as it was to me. I slowly inched across the bridge, at first to avoid detection by it, but then to avoid detection by the team. I stopped, midway, looking at it, watching it watch me.

I'm not sure how long I stood there, transfixed by it. Was it waiting for me to make the next move, or was it simply studying me? I felt like it was feeling me out, curious. It made another noise, tilting its head at me, and resumed its business. I looked at the twin disasters on either side of me. Both had become like breathing creatures again, but if I could put it into words... Relaxed. They definitely seemed relaxed, like when one's arms go slack after letting go of tension. Was it because of that...?

It took a moment for me to realize that I no longer heard the distant chatter of the group. I grabbed my phone, looking at the contacts and suddenly sending off a message as the realization hit me.

>Hey, it's okay if the others want to attack right now

I wrote, assuming maybe everything had gone quiet because I had done something so awe-inspiringly stupid, and no one knew how to respond to my idiocy.

>I'm stalling the middle. Let them go ahead with any attack plans.

I looked back behind me; there seemed to be a hazy sort of aura, like a force field, that made anything more than several feet beyond the battlefield seem sort of dreamy. Misty. My eyes couldn't focus; it was like being too sleepy to be able to see straight. But I didn't feel sleepy. I looked back towards the apparition. It gave me some sort of.... I'm not sure if it was a smile, or what, but it felt a lot like it had done that, like it had caused it. _Was its power growing!?_

The phone in my hand vibrated and dinged at me.

>>I forgot you were still down there.

>>It was so quiet, I thought you were somewhere safe. :^)

I couldn't help but laugh. Of all the times to use that hideous relic of an emoji... back when they were still called smileys... I'm sure my laughter could be heard through whatever that fugue was, if it even suppressed that.

>You're such a dork. I love you.

>>The others haven't planned an attack yet, so please come back.

I looked back up at the thing across from me, watching me curiously from the loud laugh I had made earlier. It had certainly gotten its attention. It was like it had been learning from me, because it now watched me with much interest. I looked back at it, and texted back,

>I can't. I've got its attention. I'm holding the middle.

I could vaguely hear Lance call out my name. Okay, good. He was there. And I could hear him, so I knew that sound at least carried through. But I tried to look back, and wasn't able to see through it. The same thing happened, where my eyes became unable to focus. I closed my eyes.

Ah. Of course. Something to hide behind. Am I being held captive, am I being taken away? Ahh... Lance would hate me for letting that happen.

“Focus on me,” I said, unsure who I meant that for.

Something weird happened. The hazy field disappeared. I felt the wind of the others as they went past me, launching themselves with renewed vigor at the enemies. I felt someone grab my arm and yank me out of my focus. I had been pulled towards someone, embraced by someone familiar. I was held tightly with one arm, while the other shielded us as chaos ensued. I'm not sure what was blowing us back. Was he just slowly giving up ground until it was safe to turn away?

There was still the chaos of the battlefield as everyone rushed past, more than we normally charged with, from what I could tell. Our feet inched backwards more and more, until finally he let go so we could run back.

“Go, take over for me!” Lance said towards someone else who was waiting behind us. He led me with him back towards the camp, stopping halfway there to turn and scold me.

“What do you _mean_ to let the others attack?! How do you call being in a dazed stupor 'holding the middle'? Why didn't you just come back like I said to? Do you have any idea how you scared me when you sent me that message?!”

I blinked at him, still trying to come back from the confusion. “I... I had its focus! It wasn't doing anything while it was looking at me.”

“And you weren't doing anything either! What if something attacked you while you stood there?”

“I... I had it covered.”

He glared at me, and I winced. “I did, I promise. It... It's responsive to intent. They all are. I think it's controlling the two vines, so to get to those things we'd have to get to it. I think....” I hesitated, debating to share what I had noticed. “I think it's learning....... So we need to learn how to manipulate that. I just wish I knew what _it_ was so I could be able to help more...”

“You can help more by not getting yourself hurt. I can't have you wandering off again like that, not without knowing what you were up to. Please, _please_ don't try stuff like this again. Not without me.”


End file.
